A proposal has been put forward by Core Contributor @ravageur77 which, if approved, would lead to an orderly sunset of the Yield Yak protocol later this year. Below is the full proposal for transparency. Protocol operations continue as per usual during this process. __________________ Proposal for an Orderly Sunset of Yield Yak TL;DR - We propose an orderly sunset of the Yield Yak protocol. If agreed on, the Treasury (minus winddown costs) will be dispersed to YAK holders.  Claim #1 would  begin in early November,  followed by a second and final claim in December. - All Vaults and Farms would move to withdrawal only by November.  Vaults will be maintained and remain yield-bearing until December, after which deposits in underlying Vaults (aiAVAX, aiUSD, aiBTC, etc.) will no longer earn yield. - Yield Yak’s front-end will be supported until at least Q2 2027, after which any withdrawals would need to be made via Block Explorer - The Treasury is currently valued at ~$290,000 USD that will remain yield-bearing until the claim period.  The Treasury is currently in a mix of USDC and AVAX, but would be consolidated into AVAX prior to the claim.  YAK holders would burn YAK to receive AVAX during the treasury distribution. - The Treasury has pulled all of its liquidity for YAK liquidity ahead of this proposal. REASONING Launched in the defi summer of 2021, Yield Yak has had an incredible run as one the longest running community-rooted defi protocols on Avalanche. The protocol survived multiple bear markets, and experienced incredible highs, notably YAK being the most valuable airdrop in Avalanche’s history, and reaching $750 Million in Deposits back in late ‘21.  Yak Swap, our 100% free swap aggregator, has turned over billions in swap volume. And for the majority of the protocol's existence, Yield Yak has returned 100% of fees to YAK holders.   However, the protocol has struggled to grow in the past 18 months, notably: - Chain expansion proved difficult to acquire new users and ultimately unsuccessful - We failed to convince Avalanche institutional partners (DATs, among others) or the Foundation to support Yield Yak's flagship vaults (notably aiAVAX, despite its position as the highest yield AVAX vault in the ecosystem).  Our fee generation has relied on organic support from the community. - The regulatory outlook for curated vaults isn’t promising, putting smaller protocols like ours in a potentially increasingly vulnerable position from a risk POV. - $YAK holders currently receive 30% of revenue.  It has been considered to move this to 0% and 100% to Treasury to bridge the gap between burn & revenue, but this felt unfair to YAK holders with no clear growth drivers in the pipeline. Ultimately, it feels like the right time to sunset the protocol and also in the best interest of YAK holders as opposed to a slow drain of the Treasury. SPECIFICS Treasury - Burn is currently $9.5K/month, but this is after already making reductions in recent months to bridge the gap with revenue. - Treasury revenue sits at approx. ~$5K/month - Treasury is currently made up of 3 assets: $AVAX (in aiAVAX),  $USDC (in aiUSD), and a Pharaoh xPHAR position which stems from an original investment Contributors made back in 2023. What is proposed is that the AVAX and USDC will be consolidated into AVAX, which would be currently valued at ~$290K. The xPHAR position will be transferred to the remaining Team Operations / Contributors to compensate for winddown costs.  In this way the Treasury dispersion can be simplified into one single token, without needing to liquidate and burn half of the value of the xPHAR position.  Timeline should this proposal go forward. Late October: - Deposits are disabled on all Vaults and Farms - Revenue configured to go 100% to Treasury (so they can be collected to distribute to YAK holders in Claim #2; see below) Early November: Claim #1 goes live.  This claim will be calculated as “Current Treasury Assets divided by YAK in distribution minus certain specific wallets (including the Treasury).  The Claim will be live for 30 days from the point of creation.  Any unclaimed assets will be distributed in Claim #2 to users who partook in Claim #1. Early December: - Remaining Contributor salaries are halted - Vaults deposits will stop earning users yield - Claim #2  goes live. This claim will be for unclaimed assets from Claim #1 + Revenue earned by the Treasury during Claim 1. Eligible wallets for Claim #2 will be wallets who participate in Claim #1. Not before Q2 2027: Yield Yak front-end may no longer be supported, in which case withdrawals would need be made via Block explorer aiBTC Stream Finance Impacted Users:  Contributors will facilitate any aiBTC compensation from the Stream Finance incident should a resolution come to pass in the future. Next Steps Community questions & discussion, followed by a DAO vote on Snapshot _______________

Our flagship aiAVAX vault has been opportunistically grabbing cheap $sAVAX off the market this past week….which means the carry trade has been ripping…which means depositors earned 14% in the last 7 days. 🫡

sAVAX rate update just dropped which means it's a good time to check-in on aiAVAX performance. Last 7 days: 9.66% Last 90 days 10.6% Still the best single-asset avalanche-2:native vault out there 🫡

aiAVAX new ATH with 259,000 $AVAX deposited 👏 All being optimised while supporting DeFi across the ecosystem via lending on @aave V3 & V4, @BenqiFinance, concentrated liquidity on @PharaohExchange and @BlackholeDEX, and executing the $sAVAX carry trade when profitable 💪

aiAVAX approaching its $AVAX ATHs 🔺

.@blockaid_ can you please address and fix the false positive which incorrectly flags Yield Yak (yieldyak.com) as malicious for the wallets you provide your services to including @MetaMask ? We have been reaching out to your support team with no success. Thank you!

🟦 Yield Yak's flagship @base $USDC vault is now up to 6.4% APY, all generated from balancing deposits across leading protocols @Morpho, @0xfluid. and @yield 💪

aiAVAX continues it's incredible run of late thanks to some attractive sAVAX discounts with the Carry Trade leading the way. Vault has delivered a 46% APY to depositors in the last 7 days 🔥.

Currently being assessed for aiAVAX vault integration

APY on our recently launched $USDC vault on @base is creeping up steadily, now 4.5% since launch.

Another big carry trade opportunity executed on today for aiAVAX, pushing yield in the past 7 days to 14%. Yet another reminder why aiAVAX has been the highest yielding single-asset $AVAX vault in the ecosystem over the last 18 months.

Time to expand our curated Vaults to new communities.. Introducing yiUSD, a $USDC vault on @base that optimises deposits across their leading onchain platforms, starting with @aave, @Morpho, @yield, @sparkfinance, @0xfluid, and @aeroxyz Diving in 🧵

If there remained any doubt on the best performing @avax vault, aiAVAX's recent performance over the last 7 days has delivered 28% APY to depositors. In the last 30 days it's delivered 17%. And with the proposed changes to validator rewards, there is no better time to take advantage of a yield product that's diversified across: 🥩Liquid staking via sAVAX 🏦 Lending, optimised through @aave or @BenqiFinance 🏋️ Carry trade on sAVAX 🌊 Concentrated liquidity management, optimised through @PharaohExchange @BlackholeDEX or @LFJ_gg Yield is realised on a daily basis with no deposit or withdrawal fees (APYs displayed are always net of fees).